Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Board Briefs for the Monday, November 9, 2015 Regular Board Meeting

Below is a synopsis of the board meeting actions and discussions that took place at the November 9, 2015 regular board meeting held at City Hall:

No one spoke during Citizens Speak.

Grant Elementary students demonstrated how each student led their own parent-teacher conference by sharing their student data notebooks with each board member and members of the audience.

FFA team
members were honored for their outstanding representation at the National FFA
Convention in Louisville, Kentucky in October. Muscatine’s Ag Sales team won
the National Championship with a gold rating and high overall team. Individual
honors went to: Alyssa Scholz – gold rating, Sam Burmeister – gold rating,
Tiffany Tomlin – 2nd individual, and MaKayla Kellor – 1st
high individual. The Muscatine FFA Floriculture team finished gold and 6th
over all. Rachel Schoer won 5th overall individually. In addition, Anna Brooks received her
American Degree.

Director of Finance Jean Garner presented the financial statements for August and September and also for the Food & Nutrition program.

Superintendent Riibe reported on district enrollment. This October's certified enrollment shows the district has a net loss of 173 students which translates to a loss of $1.4 million dollars in funding and spending authority. He shared that from the end of last school year to this fall, 386 students exited our district. 287 students moved out of the community and 99 others exited for various reasons. Trend data shows that Muscatine County's birth rate has been declining since 2001 which has future implications of continued declining enrollment. He shared the district's response to this decrease in enrollment:

Protect classrooms and the learning process.

Identify different models and paradigms for service delivery.

Explore different custodial schedules and assignments.

Explore the efficiency of our current elementary model.

Explore long range reconfigurations of grade levels and school sites.

Other announcements/meetings:

November 18 & 19 is the Iowa Association of School Board's State Convention in Des Moines.

There is a two-hour early dismissal for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 25.

November 26-27 - no school.

December 14 is the next regular board meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The draft policy manual from IASB is ready for review by the board. A poll of possible meeting dates and times will be sent to the board.

The high school gate closure times were announced for the public. The gates are closed beginning at 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then again at 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. seven days per week.